Caracal Models CD 48062: F-104 'Starfighters'

Starfighters Inc, based in Clearwater, Florida, began as a private venture to restore and fly three former Canadair CF-104 Starfighters at air shows across the United States and Canada. Initially their CF-104s consisted of a two-seat CF-104D Serial#:104632 (registered as N104RB), and two single-seat CF-104s Serial#s: 104850 (registered as N104RD) and 104759 (registered as N104RN). The aircraft were originally operated with the Royal Canadian Air Force and all later served with the Royal Norwegian Air Force before being imported into the U.S. in the early 1990s. In recent years the company has cut back on air show appearances as they have transitioned to using their aircraft for government and private contract work, providing high-performance photo chase planes on flight tests, simulating enemy aircraft in military defense exercises, and modelling ballistic missiles for detection system evaluation.

In summer 2011 the company acquired five additional aircraft. All are F-104S versions built by Fiat for the Italian Air Force in the late 1970s. The estimated cost of restoration of each of the five aircraft is $1 million.

I thought a bit of background would be appreciated for those unfamiliar with this group. There are four registration numbers provided and while not shown, you can do two planes in one scheme and two in the other. The two not shown are the two seat versions. Hasegawa does a full line of F-104s in this scale though you could probably use others like the old Monogram kit or even the rather horrible ESCI version.

There are schemes provided. One is gloss blue over white with an unpainted metal rear fuselage while the other is in a rather fetching splinter scheme of gloss blue, white and light ghost grey over white. There is a full upper and lower diagram as well as both sides so you can duplicate these two schemes. The fine blue decals are for the all blue upper scheme.

Decals are very nicely printed by Microscale.